Friday, January 2, 2009

my man, paul simon.

paul simon has been a favorite song writer of mine for a long long time. i used to sing a lot of simon & garfunkel songs with my pops, so the beautifully flowing melodies coupled with the simple harmonies reach right to my depths.

its hard to limit my choices of favorite songs, but i found a few good live recordings on the internets.

homeward bound - 1967

around 1970, paul simon and art garfunkel broke off their duet and paul went thru a series of musical experiements. early on, he stuck to his brilliant song-writing roots. (the stache in this recording is great!)

american tune - 1975

slip slidin' away

in the 1980's, my man paul went to africa to work on the "we are the world" project. while there, he worked with the powerful vocal group, ladysmith black mambazo, among others, to produce his most well-known solo album - graceland. not only was this album great to listen to, but it introduced much of the western world to "world music," and also resulted in one of the best music videos ever produced (in my opinion).

i know what i know:

and finally, feelin' groovy! ok, so the song is properly titled the 59th street bridge song (feelin' groovy), but i dont think anyone actually uses the whole title of the song, nor should they!

2 comments:

Thanks for the great videos, Amanda! Paul is one of my favorites too and one of my biggest inspirations as a songwriter and performer (though in mentioning my songwriting in the same paragraph with Paul Simon, I must add "I'm not worthy!"). Somehow I've never been to a Simon or S&G concert but I did hear him give a lecture in 1974 in Pittsburgh, and I got him to sign my Paul Simon Songbook that night which was a real thrill. Of course I still have that book.

i had quite an adventure traveling across the US to get to a paul simon concert in 2001 or so. it was a fantastic experience and completely worth the effort of travel!

i've attempted to play some of his songs on the piano. he's one of those composers whose songs sound deceivingly simple, but turn out to be incredibly hard to play! maybe i'll dig out the music again and make another attempt...